


Ghosts of the Temple

by AvatarAang7



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: I Tried, Spooky, Supernatural Elements, or at least
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 15:03:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16389941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvatarAang7/pseuds/AvatarAang7
Summary: Jinora and her siblings are on vacation in the Western Air Temple, where she decides to scare her sibling with an old-fashioned ghost story. However, she may have gotten more than she bargained for...My first attempt at writing anything spooky, it is the month of Halloween, after all.





	Ghosts of the Temple

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kainorian](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kainorian/gifts).



> Wrote this to participate in the Avatar Wiki's fanon contest. They're occasionally organized, so feel free to swing by there, maybe join in next time.

Having a brief vacation from being an airbending master wasn't so bad for Jinora. Visiting the Western Air Temple was always a joy, given how different it was from the others, with the inverted hanging structures and the breeze that always swept through it. It truly was a special place. Air Temple Island would always be her home, the Southern Temple her ancestral home, and even though it had been destroyed and rebuilt, the Northern Air Temple would hold a special place in her heart because that's where she got to know Kai. It just missed the authenticity of the others.

But here, now, on this plateau, with a small campfire burning and her family around her, Jinora knew that now was the perfect time to relax. Meelo was still acting all tough, which was slowly getting on her nerves, but the occasional eyeroll shared between her and Ikki made it bearable.

Their father had decided to get an early night sleep, he was the one flying Oogi all day, and their mother was putting Rohan to sleep now that evening had mostly fallen. There was some orange light still visible over the edge of the opposite cliff, but most light really was coming from their fire. It made a soft crackling sound, which calmed Jinora down. The silence here was so nice compared to the noisy, frenetic atmosphere of Republic City. A quiet moment that so many people forgot to take every now and then was tremendously underrated.

That is, until the silence was broken by Meelo. "I'm gonna be best soldier there ever was!"

Jinora rolled her eyes for the thousandth time that day. "Meelo, you're an Air Nomad. We don't have soldiers."

"We will once I'm done!"

Sharing a glance with Ikki, she decided it was time to once and for all silence him. "Have you ever heard the legends surrounding battle for the temples? What happened after the Great Genocide?"

Meelo sighed. "Great, you're going to give us another history lesson?"

Jinora shook her head. "This isn't history, this continues to this day. You see, the elder monks and nuns living here were ambushed by the firebenders on the day Sozin's Comet came, and they were unprepared. The eldest, wisest, and best airbenders wanted to give the children a chance to escape the massacre, to fight off the firebenders for as long as they could. Of course, being peaceful, they didn't want to kill the firebenders, and didn't have any attacks that would kill them. But here, in the Western Air Temple, where every ledge has a thousand-foot drop on it, firebenders were blown off and into the chasm. Even with the power of the Comet, their heavy armor would make them fall to their deaths, and some say that when everything is quiet, you can still hear their screams as they fall."

By now, Ikki and Meelo where on the edges of their seats as Jinora continued softly telling her story. "Of course, the airbenders were outnumbered and lost the fight, but their spirits never left this place, the place they died to defend. They are still wandering these hallways, looking for children that were left behind, haunting them to the bison pens, where their spirits are taken away, never to be seen again. But there are some... Some are looking for airbenders to help them fight, and that they won't let anyone sleep until the firebenders have been defeated."

She let a silence fall, with Ikki and Meelo still listening with their attention focused 100% on Jinora, when suddenly, the crackling of the fire was no longer the only sound there. It was a faint yell, seemingly coming from over the edge of the cliff, and it made them all exchange nervous glances with each other. "What was that?" Meelo asked, clearly more than a little scared.

"Just the wind," Jinora assured him. "It does strange things here around the temples. But it's time for bed for you two, so come on. We've sat around this fireplace long enough."

Smiling as her sibling were still clearly a little nervous, Jinora urged them inside and made sure they brushed their teeth and went to bed. The electric lighting that had been installed made it a lot less scary than it would have been during Grandpa Aang's time, she thought. It would make sense that acolytes would come up with stories like that when all you have to see is a candle that illuminates three feet in front of you and nothing more.

Jinora wound up making sure that both Ikki and Meelo went to bed, after which she figured she might as well go herself, read a little bit of her book, and then catch some sleep herself.

She didn't really get the chance though, as there was a soft knock on her door. "Yes?" It turned out to be Ikki, who looked a little scared. "What are you still doing up?"

"I keep thinking about your story. Are you sure there are no spirits coming for us?"

Jinora chuckled. "One of the acolytes told me something like that in the way, way back. But I think that if the temple was haunted, we would have known by now."

"Then what about the scream we heard?"

"Just the wind playing through the temples. Nothing to worry about here, you're perfectly safe." She had barely finished her sentence, or the lights in the hallway started flickering a little bit. It served to make Ikki a lot more nervous than she already was, and she ducked to cover behind her big sister.

"Are those the spirits? Are they coming for me?!"

Jinora rolled her eyes. "Like I said, it's an old wives' tale. Come on, I'll tuck you back into bed." She held out her hand to pull Ikki back to her feet, who was unwilling to let go after.

But while walking to Ikki's room, Jinora suddenly felt something in her spirit. There was anguish here in these halls, and it had been here for a long time. The energy here was different, and there was something wrong. Brushing off these concerns was a bad idea, but if she would say them out loud, Ikki wouldn't close an eye for the rest of their trip. Jinora decided to meditate on it once she had tucked her little sister in.

But she hadn't turned around yet, or Ikki stopped her. "Jinora? Could you stay a bit?"

Jinora had half a mind to tell her she wasn't going to, but when she turned back to face her sister, there was something off about her. She was sitting ramrod straight in her bed, eyes wide open, but also completely still. "Ikki?" No response. "Ikki?!" she repeated, only louder this time, but still nothing. "Oh no..." Jinora ran outside to the room down the hall where Meelo slept, and found him in an identical position.

At that very moment, a chill ran up her spine, and she sensed a shift in the spiritual energy here. There was no time to lose, and yet Jinora hesitated. If something went wrong, no one knew where she was. But Ikki and Meelo were in danger, and she had a terrible feeling it was all her fault.

With a deep breath, Jinora sat down on the bed next to her little brother and assumed the lotus position. She tried to concentrate, but that was made difficult when she could hear the faint scream of someone in the distance. A man's cry that faded out as it disappeared into the depth. But she had to block it out. She had to do whatever it took to bring them back.

The familiar rush came over her as her spirit left her body, and things seemed the same at first glance, save for the fact that she was looking at her own body from the outside. Spiritual energy was rich here, so she had no idea where the spirits of Ikki and Meelo were. But as she moved through the hallways, the worst thing was that there was nothing to indicate something wrong at first glance, yet the energy was telling her otherwise. There was no one patrolling, no sign of anything amiss.

Jinora headed back to the courtyard they had been in earlier, where the last embers of their fire were still smouldering, waiting to finally cool down all the way. This was where she told that story, but surely it couldn't be true, right?

And there it was. Another scream, but this time much closer. It was clear as day that something here was very, very wrong. Was it true after all? Even though the story she told was hearsay, and probably wildly exaggerated at that, it wasn't impossible that there was a core of truth to it. At that moment, there was a breath of wind on her neck, which should have been impossible. She was an astral projection, there should be no wind.

When she turned to face the chasm, it was still empty. The darkness didn't help, as all the lights had been turned off by the acolytes. But then she noticed something vague in the distance. It looked more like a whiff than anything else, gone almost as soon as she saw it.

Jinora closed her eyes, and concentrated for a moment, trying to feel the energies of Ikki and Meelo, but got nowhere. She was looking for fear, but that seemed to be everywhere around here. It was so strange, that in this beautiful temple, the energy reminded only her of the horrors that had occured here.

There was another yell in the distance, but this was different. It was not another cry of anguish, this was more direct, almost as if it was calling to her. Making the command decision to go against her instincts, Jinora followed it, as more and more doubt crept over her. Her rational mind knew that almost two centuries of retelling and embellishing meant that whatever was left of the story was probably far removed from actual fact, but everything that had happened tonight... perhaps the story was true.

As soon as she thought that, Jinora felt another rush of wind, this time a big one she had to brace herself for, and when she looked up again, she was astounded. On the courtyard in front of her, there were the spirits of dozens of Air Nomads going through their bending motions, but without the air actually moving, or at least it shouldn't. But dropping down from the roof of the cliff were firebenders, dozens of them, going through firebending motions.

Their spirits were fighting the airbenders, and occasionally a firebender would get hit and be blown off into the chasm, while the airbenders would presumably get hit by fire, but always got back up. There was no fire, but their spirits thought there was.

"What are you still doing here?!" An elderly monk came running to her and pulled her behind the wall. He looked decidedly old-fashioned, but with the same tattoos Jinora bore, but also with facial hair even more impressive than her father's. "This is no place for a child! Get to the bison!" Then he noticed her tattoos. "Wait, you're a master? You can help us fight off the Fire Nation!"

Jinora knew that she'd have a hard time bringing this to him. "But... the war is over. The Fire Nation's invasion of the Air Temples happened almost two centuries ago."

"Can't you see that we're fighting them?!"

"You're spirits, none of this is part of the physical world anymore. But me and my brother and sister are, and I need to get them back."

He looked at her in utter disbelief, but one of the Fire Nation soldiers charged at them, so he made an airbending move to blow him away. "If you're not going to fight, you need to leave, now! We will have sent your brother and sister to the bison as well, now go!"

Deciding that he was probably right, Jinora went where the monk had told her to, hoping that she would remember the layout of the temple well enough to make it there in time. Trying to help these spirits, caught in this endless battle, she felt she should help them, but Ikki and Meelo needed her help more right now. Worrying about the living was more important than worrying about the dead.

She wasn't sure what she should be expecting at the bison stables, but she ran into a nun, also dressed in traditional robes and with her head half-shaven to display her arrow, frantically looking out for firebenders. "My child!" she immediately called upon seeing Jinora. "Come, come, there will be another bison by shortly!"

"I'm not looking for a bison, I'm looking for my siblings. Have you seen them? New children to you, they're 11 and 9."

"I'm just glad that you're still alive," the nun argued. "Now help me hold off those firebenders!"

"Sister!" Jinora found it slightly strange to have an outburst at an airbending master, especially one who has been dead for almost 200 years, but it was necessary. "This isn't real. The firebenders aren't coming for you anymore. The war is over. And..." There really was no easy way to break this news to someone's spirit. "You died to defend the temple and give the fleeing children a chance."

At first, she gave Jinora the same confused look that the monk had given her in the courtyard, but something of understanding dawned on her. "Then who are you?" the nun asked.

"I'm Avatar Aang's granddaughter. He was Roku's successor, survived the genocide and won the war. The Temples were rebuilt and the Air Nation restored. Your sacrifice was not in vain." That pained her, because everyone she died to protect would be hunted down by the Fire Nation eventually, but in Jinora's time, it was true.

The nun still looked conflicted, but also like she did believe Jinora. "Time can move differently for spirits," she said. "Do you think that happened here?"

"I do," Jinora decisively said. "You don't have to fight anymore. You can be at peace, and rest. If you can guide me to my siblings, they'll tell you the same thing."

The spirit of the nun still doubted for a moment, but then gestured to a narrow door carved into the cliff face. "They'll be in there."

Jinora rushed in there, indeed seeing Ikki and Meelo standing there, and it reminded her of when she had been trapped in the Fog of Lost Souls. She took their hands, pulling them back towards the door. They seemed absent, but didn't actively fight her either. She just concentrated, trying to get them back to their bodies, and the rush she had felt before came over her once again as she felt the soft touch of a bed under her.

When Jinora opened her eyes again, she was back in Meelo's room, who looked a little groggy. "Jinora? What happened?"

She sighed. "There may have been something to that story after all."

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like paraphrasing Bronn, from Game of Thrones: "Now that is a sorry attempt at a horror story. Someone needs to teach that sad twat how do it properly." Oh well, it's only my first attempt, so please be gentle.


End file.
